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I don't have a special interest

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CockneyRebel
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23 Mar 2024, 7:19 pm

My special interests are arts & crafts, Germany, warfare, classic TV shows and TV sets, Swinging London, The Kinks, things related to Christmas, Om Nom and Cut the Rope.


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ToughDiamond
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24 Mar 2024, 10:39 am

Mine tend to be smaller than the stereotype special interest. They're more like projects - they usually have a completion point where the goal is reached and it's all written up and put away. How long it takes me to compete a project depends on what problems I encounter with it. Although I usually get a lot out of being so intensely absorbed, and soon feel flat between projects, at the time I don't welcome complications and I usually wish the damn thing was done and dusted, although when it's all going smoothly I enjoy it a lot. I suppose the exception is music, which goes on forever and remains attractive, but even there it's probably no more than a number of individual projects such as learning to play this or that song with a view to performing or recording it. Those projects just happen to come under the heading of music.



utterly absurd
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24 Mar 2024, 3:51 pm

ToughDiamond wrote:
Mine tend to be smaller than the stereotype special interest. They're more like projects - they usually have a completion point where the goal is reached and it's all written up and put away. How long it takes me to compete a project depends on what problems I encounter with it. Although I usually get a lot out of being so intensely absorbed, and soon feel flat between projects, at the time I don't welcome complications and I usually wish the damn thing was done and dusted, although when it's all going smoothly I enjoy it a lot. I suppose the exception is music, which goes on forever and remains attractive, but even there it's probably no more than a number of individual projects such as learning to play this or that song with a view to performing or recording it. Those projects just happen to come under the heading of music.


I think I do this as well. I occasionally get into a big pointless project that I spend a lot of time on. I'll get frustrated with it and then wonder why I don't just quit because I don't have to do it, but I keep going because I do still get something out of it. I suppose I'm just bored right now because I'm too busy to start a project like this.


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24 Mar 2024, 4:46 pm

I like other people's special interests me.

I don't mean that I steal them for myself or copy off them but I'm just naturally interested in what other people are interested in. I find it fascinating

I've never had a special interest of my own though. I've never been a one for collecting things either.


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ToughDiamond
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25 Mar 2024, 2:55 am

utterly absurd wrote:
ToughDiamond wrote:
Mine tend to be smaller than the stereotype special interest. They're more like projects - they usually have a completion point where the goal is reached and it's all written up and put away. How long it takes me to compete a project depends on what problems I encounter with it. Although I usually get a lot out of being so intensely absorbed, and soon feel flat between projects, at the time I don't welcome complications and I usually wish the damn thing was done and dusted, although when it's all going smoothly I enjoy it a lot. I suppose the exception is music, which goes on forever and remains attractive, but even there it's probably no more than a number of individual projects such as learning to play this or that song with a view to performing or recording it. Those projects just happen to come under the heading of music.


I think I do this as well. I occasionally get into a big pointless project that I spend a lot of time on. I'll get frustrated with it and then wonder why I don't just quit because I don't have to do it, but I keep going because I do still get something out of it. I suppose I'm just bored right now because I'm too busy to start a project like this.

It's very rare that I decide to abandon a project, though I often wonder why I don't. Projects sometimes fall by the wayside without my noticing, but it's hardly ever deliberate. And I hate it when I realise I've forgotten one and left it in a mess that can't readily be resumed. My projects usually involve doing tons of hard work to get a result that few would be clever or mad enough to achieve.



CockneyRebel
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25 Mar 2024, 8:32 am

The reason that I said I wish I didn't have a special interest earlier on was because my parents verbally berated me for talking about my childhood interests all the time when I was between the ages 7 and 10 and I didn't understand the reason why. I really thought that my parents hated me and they were embarrassed to have me. I couldn't understand why the person who gave birth to me could hate me so much, or so I thought. I was made to feel like a freak for having special interests by mainly my mum. She called them obsessions and she rolled her eyes at them. I felt so hated in my early 20s that I told the other members at my clubhouse that I was adopted.


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25 Mar 2024, 7:42 pm

CockneyRebel wrote:
The reason that I said I wish I didn't have a special interest earlier on was because my parents verbally berated me for talking about my childhood interests all the time when I was between the ages 7 and 10 and I didn't understand the reason why. I really thought that my parents hated me and they were embarrassed to have me. I couldn't understand why the person who gave birth to me could hate me so much, or so I thought. I was made to feel like a freak for having special interests by mainly my mum. She called them obsessions and she rolled her eyes at them. I felt so hated in my early 20s that I told the other members at my clubhouse that I was adopted.

That's awful, so sorry :(


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Diagnosed ASD/ADHD age 5. Finally understood that age 17.
Have very strong opinions so sorry if I offend anyone--I still respect your opinion.
Neutral pronouns preferred but anything is fine.
Feel free to PM me--I like to talk about most things other than sports.